US orders embassy staff and families out of Saudi Arabia as Houthi attacks intensify
The US State Department has ordered non-emergency government staff and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, citing escalating attacks by Yemen's Houthis on airports and oil infrastructure — the same day falling drone debris killed two workers at the Shaybah oilfield.
The United States has ordered non-emergency government employees and their families to leave Saudi Arabia, as the kingdom faces a sustained wave of deadly attacks by Yemen’s Houthi movement, the State Department said on Wednesday.
“The US Department of State issued an ordered departure for non-emergency US government employees and their family members in Saudi Arabia,” spokesman Tommy Pigott wrote in a post on X, saying the Iran-aligned Houthis had “increasingly engaged in hostilities against Saudi Arabia, including attacks on civilian airports and other critical infrastructure resulting in civilian casualties and severe travel disruptions” (CNN, Geo News via Reuters).
The move followed a diplomatic source telling AFP that “all American staff and their families” had been ordered out of the US embassy in Riyadh, and that families were also being withdrawn from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Bahrain. Pigott pushed back on that account, saying media reports of a wider Gulf departure were “inaccurate” and that the order applied to Saudi Arabia only (Geo News via Reuters, Al Jazeera).
The departure order came on a day of heavy attacks. Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said falling debris from the interception of a drone targeting the Shaybah oilfield near the border with the United Arab Emirates killed two people — a Filipino and a Nepali — and injured two others; it did not identify who launched the drone, and the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen reported intercepting several drones earlier on Wednesday (Geo News via Reuters). A separate attack on King Fahd International airport in Dammam killed one person and wounded eight (Al Jazeera).
A State Department security alert also warned US citizens of potential attacks on airports and travel disruptions, and said US government employees now require special authorisation to use any airport in the kingdom (CNN). The US has stepped up intelligence and targeting support for Saudi Arabia but President Donald Trump has so far decided against US strikes on the Houthis; Saudi-backed forces have meanwhile expanded operations against Houthi positions on multiple frontlines (CNN).
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